Table Of Contents
- What happens to Skilled Worker dependents when the sponsor licence is suspended
- If you and your dependants apply and your employer’s licence is suspended
- If your dependants apply when your employer’s licence is suspended
- Summary
In an effort to stop net inward immigration, the Home Office has been taking several steps in recent times. One major step taken by the Home Office worth mentioning here is that many employers’ sponsor licences have been revoked in the year 2025 alone. The Home Office’s official announcement states that between July 2024 and June 2025, 1,948 sponsor licences allowing companies to bring in migrant workers were revoked. This is more than double the number of revocations in the previous 12 months (937). Current trends suggest that sponsor revocations for 2026 are expected to exceed the record high once again.
This has become a concerning factor for migrant workers and their dependents, as revocation of the sponsor licence of the employer who assigned them a CoS (Certificate of Sponsorship) directly affects the existing workers and their dependent partners and children applying to join or stay with them in the UK.
However, a sponsor licence suspension is not the same as sponsor licence revocation, and its impact on those already in the UK on a Skilled Worker visa or other work routes is less unless their sponsor loses their licence (known as revocation) following a UKVI investigation.
In this blog, we explain how dependents of skilled workers are affected when the skilled worker’s employer has their licence suspended.
What happens to Skilled Worker dependents when the sponsor licence is suspended?
Before knowing what happens to a skilled worker’s dependents, it is important to know what happens to the skilled worker’s current permission to stay in the UK.
The Home Office’s sponsor guidance expressly states that workers who already have valid permission as a skilled worker and who are being sponsored as a skilled worker when the licence is suspended will not be affected unless or until the licence is revoked.
If a skilled worker’s employer’s sponsor licence is suspended, their dependants are not normally affected immediately simply because the licence has been suspended.
Therefore, if you are a Skilled Worker and your spouse and children hold dependant visas and your employer’s licence is suspended, your existing Skilled Worker permission continues, and your dependants’ existing dependant permission does not automatically end.
Your dependants can generally continue to live in the UK under their existing permission.
However, if UKVI revokes your employer’s sponsor licence following an investigation, your sponsorship also ends because your CoS becomes invalid. In such a situation, UKVI may curtail your permission to 60 days, and this will affect your dependants’ permission as well because their immigration permission is based on your status as a Skilled Worker. To safeguard your immigration status and your dependants’ permission in the UK, you may be required to find another sponsor or another immigration route.
If you and your dependants apply and your employer’s licence is suspended
The Home Office’s official guidance says that a sponsor cannot assign new CoS when their licence is suspended. It also says that all skilled worker visa applications supported by a valid CoS assigned before the licence suspension are normally put on hold until the licence is reinstated.
Therefore, if you are applying for a skilled worker visa along with your dependents and your employer’s sponsor licence is suspended, your application will be put on hold even if you were assigned a CoS before your employer’s licence was suspended. This also means your dependents’ visa will also be put on hold, as they are applying based on a CoS assigned to you.
If your dependants apply when your employer’s licence is suspended
If you are already in the UK on a Skilled Worker visa and your dependent partner and/or children apply to join you but your employer’s licence is suspended, the suspension does not automatically mean that their applications will be refused. Your dependants, however, must independently satisfy the dependant requirements.
If your employer’s licence is reinstated, there should generally be no continuing sponsorship issue, assuming you still have valid Skilled Worker permission and your dependants meet all the dependant requirements.
If your employer’s licence is revoked, your sponsorship ends immediately. Your own Skilled Worker permission may then be curtailed. That can have a direct impact on your dependant partner and children because their Skilled Worker dependent visa application is based on your status as the main Skilled Worker.
Summary
If you are already in the UK as a skilled worker, the suspension of your employer’s sponsor licence does not automatically end your sponsorship. Your eligible dependants (partner and children) may still apply to join you, but their applications will be assessed against the dependant requirements and your continuing immigration status. If your employer’s licence is later revoked and your Skilled Worker permission is curtailed, this may affect your dependants’ applications or immigration status.
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